This is the Seattle Sports Blog bringing you up to date current events of Seattle Sports. This blog has several writers who will discuss several sports related topics but mainly focus on Seattle Sports.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Seahawks Take On the Angry Steelers

Tomorrow, the Seahawks will be taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers. This is a matchup that a lot of Seahawks fans will react pretty negatively to given the fact that they're the ones who beat us in Super Bowl XL. So that already makes this a sort of grudge match. Couple that with the fact that the Seahawks just lost pretty badly to the 49ers last week and this is going to be a heated matchup to say the least.

Last week, the Seahawks just did not look all that great against the 49ers. Well, everything except the defense, which was awesome, but I'll get to that later. The offense just could not get it going at all in the first half, and by the time they finally scored, it was in the 3rd quarter when they were down 16-0. That just can't happen. Period. If the Seahawks do that again this week against Pittsburgh, we're done for sure.

The Steelers are going to come out swinging tomorrow. After being completely manhandled by the Ravens last week, they're going to be out for blood. I really wish that we didn't have to play them this week just for that reason. They don't want a repeat of last week, so they will make sure that it doesn't happen. I think they're going to be back to their normal selves this week, unfortunately for us.

That being said, all hope is not lost for the Seahawks. The defense played very well last week against the 49ers, so if they can come back hard like that again, things may not go as everyone is predicting. The defense just needs to give the offense a chance to make something happen. If they can get some key stops against the Steelers, they just might be able to keep us in this game.

But then the offense needs to take over, which is where the problem lies. The Seahawks offense just did not look good last week. Nothing happened until the second half, and even when it did happen, it was nothing spectacular. Yes, there was the 55-yard TD reception by Doug Baldwin, but you have to realize that the catch was only about 7 yards. The other 48 yards was from Baldwin's insane speed. So that TD wasn't because of how amazing Tarvaris Jackson is. Which, was a problem all day last Sunday. Tarvaris Jackson did not look like a guy who was comfortable running the offense at all. He often held onto the ball way too long, and when he finally passed, it was all short passes. He never looked down the field. That is something that has to change in order for the Seahawks to even have a chance of winning this game tomorrow. But I'm not too optimistic about it.

The Seahawks will likely still be without their #1 receiver Sidney Rice, the one who Jackson is most comfortable with. So that is definitely continuing to be a big loss. Without him, I just don't see any big plays coming from this offense. While Mike Williams has the potential to do great things, he doesn't have the opportunity to do them when he doesn't get the ball.

Robert Gallery will be back, though, which will hopefully mean that the offensive line will do better and Jackson will have more time to go through his progressions and maybe make some big plays. I wouldn't hold my breath, however. I know I sound like Debbie Downer right now, but the team didn't give me all that much confidence last week, and with this tough matchup, things don't bode well for our Seahawks.

Overall, I think this will be a tough day for Seahawks fans. The Steelers are going to be pissed, and they will be taking it out on us. While I am totally down for them surprising me and stealing this game, I just don't think that it can realistically happen. I'm going to have to say that after tomorrow we will be 0-2.